Born Oct. 1, 1847, London, Eng. died Sept. 20, 1933, Adyar,
Madras.British social reformer, sometime Fabian socialist,
theosophist, and Indian independence leader. Besant had been the wife of an Anglican clergyman. They
separated in 1873, and Besant became associated for many years with the atheist
and social reformer Charles Bradlaugh. She was an early advocate of birth
control, and in the late 1880s she became a prominent Fabian socialist under
the influence of George Bernard Shaw. Finally, in 1889, she was converted to
the doctrines of the Russian-born religious mystic Helena Blavatsky, a
cofounder of the Theosophical Society. The teachings of
the society emphasized human service, a spiritual evolutionism drawn from both
Eastern and Western esoteric philosophy, and the role of suprahuman masters of
wisdom. Besant plunged vigorously into theosophical work, lecturing and writing
widely. Her numerous books and articles are still considered among the best
expositions of theosophical belief. She was international president of the
Theosophical Society from 1907 until her death, residing principally at its
headquarters in Madras. She was active in educational and humanitarian work in
India and became involved in the Indian independence movement, establishing the
Indian Home Rule League in 1916. She promoted her protégé, Jiddu Krishnamurti,
whom she believed to be a potential world teacher, in the years before his
renunciation of formal theosophy in 1929.
